Featured Allocator | Barrett Broussard of Advocate Health
EAA: How did you find your way to being an LP?
Barrett: My path to being an LP started while playing table tennis on campus. I played with a finance professor who had previously managed LSU’s endowment. After each game, he told me stories about meeting managers and allocating capital. That was the first time I understood that investing was more than picking stocks, it was about allocating capital responsibly.
That curiosity pushed me to handwrite letters to allocators across Louisiana. One of those letters led to an internship at TRSL. While there, I started meeting weekly with another local CIO where he taught me his manager selection framework and investment memo process. Those meetings shaped how I think about capital allocation.
Today, I try to create that same experience for students who want to enter the field. I meet with them regularly, review their investment memos, and give them direct feedback so they learn how to think and communicate like allocators.
EAA: Tell us more about your organization. What’s its origin story and core mission?
Barrett: Advocate Health was formed in 1995 through the merger of two longstanding Chicago hospital systems. Today, we are the third-largest nonprofit hospital system in the U.S., with 69 hospital campuses, approximately 167,000 teammates, and over 1,100 sites of care across the Midwest and Southeast. From an investment perspective, we manage about $30 billion across multiple pools of capital in support of our healthcare mission.
EAA: What are you currently looking to invest in? / What are you excited about?
Barrett: Advocate remains underweight private equity relative to our long-term target allocations, allowing the team and I to be active in the market and evaluate new managers without being overly constrained by existing exposures. It is an exciting seat because we can be selective and thoughtful in how we build relationships and construct the portfolio.
EAA: What’s something you believe about investing that most other LPs would disagree with?
Barrett: Most institutional portfolios are significantly overdiversified. I understand why the tendency exists, beta portfolios are easier to defend when outcomes disappoint, but nearly every “hall of fame” investor we admire achieved their results through conviction and concentration. Thoughtful concentration, when supported by diligent underwriting, is where upside is built.
EAA: What’s a hill you’re willing to die on as an investor?
Barrett: LPs should push back more firmly on LPA terms, ideally in coordination. Over time, LPAs have become increasingly GP-friendly without meaningful trade-offs. Long-term alignment requires discipline on governance and economics, and allocators should treat legal negotiations as a core part of their process.
EAA: What part of the private markets ecosystem do you think is overrated right now?
Barrett: Private credit. Illiquidity is a finite resource. If we are going to lock up capital for extended periods, the return profile should meaningfully compensate for that constraint. The same can be said about real estate, but that view is more consensus.
EAA: If you were doing any other career path, what would it be?
Barrett: If I were not an investor, I would be a teacher. I care about personal growth and helping others improve. Both of my parents are teachers, so I saw that impact early in life. I have helped shaped the curriculum for multiple courses at LSU and have also served as a guest lecturer. That experience confirmed how much I enjoy teaching. It is mutually beneficial and one of the best ways to keep learning.
EAA: What’s the best way to get in touch with you?
Barrett: LinkedIn is usually the easiest way to reach me. Good ideas can come from anywhere, and I value connecting with thoughtful people and trading notes.